Dear Members and Friends of TaPRA,

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who contributed to making our 2024 conference at Northumbria University a huge success!

Our 2024 conference had a total attendance of 288, with 211 in person attendees and 67 online attendees. While online attendance was similar to 2023, there was a drop in in-person attendance, which reflects the difficulties of the sector at present. As an Exec, we are working to ensure that TaPRA responds to the current state of the sector and supports those most affected, including the introduction of free online attendance for those who have experienced redundancy, department closures, or voluntary severance.

However, we are also happy to say that the 2024 conference has broken even financially, enabling us to carry out the work of the organisation through the year, including fellowships, interim working group events, and the very important bursaries enabling ECRs, unaffiliated members, and our pledged support for trans and non-binary scholars and artists to attend our conferences.

We would like to thank everyone who has given feedback to the Exec on the 2024 conference; as we prepare for our 2025 conference, we shall be thinking with you all. We are especially delighted by the positive feedback on our three panel events: What Next for UK Theatre and Performance Studies; Palestinian Theatre: Histories, Contemporary Voices and Solidarities; and Black British Theatre and Performance as Activist Interventions.

We also wish to acknowledge and express gratitude for the hard work of our working group convenors, without whom the annual conference and interim events would not happen.

Thank you to Felipa Cervera who has now completed his co-opted term as Conference Officer and has stepped down. His work on the TaPRA Manifesto with our former Conference Officer Nesreen Hussein, and his labour towards our Northumbria conference are noted with gratitude.

Our special thanks to Rachel Hann, who, in addition to being joint Chair of the organisation, was also lead organiser of the 2024 conference. Rachel’s tireless and caring work has been crucial to ensuring the financial sustainability of TaPRA, ensuring that the conference reflected the TaPRA Manifesto, and making the 2024 conference a gathering of fun and criticality.

It is therefore with a deep mixture of both sadness and gratitude, that we announce that Rachel Hann will be stepping down as one of the Chairs of TaPRA from November. As many of you will be aware, Rachel is currently undertaking an AHRC fellowship on “Trans Performance Now.” After her outstanding contributions towards bringing the 2024 conference to fruition, and her vital work as one of the Chairs since September 2022, including TaPRA’s financial sustainability, Rachel will be prioritising her research for the remainder of her fellowship. We really look forward to seeing what emerges from this important work that we know will be field-changing. Rachel will be deeply missed by the Exec, especially by Broderick and Royona, and we look forward to welcoming her to our 2025 conference.

Broderick and Royona will continue the joint manifesto of the three Chairs. We acknowledge that the structure of joint chairs is a first for the organisation, and as such, a single co-chair stepping down is also a first.

As such, we propose that the two of us stay on as Chairs and deliver the same mandate that the three of us signed up to when we stepped into our shared Chairs role from September 2022. This means we would complete our tenure as joint-Chairs and hand over to new Chair/s at the May 2026 online AGM. This will allow us to deliver Warwick in Sept 2025, open up nominations for new Chair/s straight after, and then work with incoming Chair/s towards a handover in May 2026. The new Chair/s would then be in place before the 2026 conference.

In line with the constitution and guided by Vice-Chair Solomon Lennox, the Executive Committee has voted to approve this plan, extending the original term by an additional 7 months to account for the AGM now being held online in May of each year.

If there are any thoughts from the membership about these plans, please reach out at exec@tapra.org. Relatedly, if anyone wishes to have preliminary conversations about stepping into the role of Chair/s from May 2026, we would love to hear from you.

In the meantime, we excitedly look towards TaPRA 2025 at the University of Warwick from Wednesday 27 to Friday 29 August, which will coincide with Tapra’s 20th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of theatre and performances studies at Warwick!

We extend our warmth and care to our community at what continues to be very turbulent and unsettling times for our sector.